by Ronald de Sousa

In this blog, influential philosopher of emotions Ronald de Sousa explains that jealousy can be transformed into compersion when we reframe the core sensation of jealousy into a positive (although counter-cultural) story. Rejecting the idea that we are entitled to sexual jealousy, or that jealousy is proof of love, de Sousa argues that we may free ourselves from culturally-based assumptions by ascribing compersive meanings to our lover’s extra-dyadic intimacies.